Indian stock markets remained in the consolidation mode on Friday. The BSE Sensex today closed at 81,381.36, down 230.05 points or 0.28 per cent, while the NSE Nifty50 ended at 24,964.25, down 34.20 points or 0.14 per cent.
13 of the 30 Sensex stocks, and 22 of the 50 Nifty stocks closed in the negative zone, led by TCS, M&M, ICICI Bank, Maruti Suzuki, Power Grid, Cipla, Adani Enterprises, and Axis Bank. These share prices were down in the range of 1 per cent to 2 per cent.
The losses were, however, capped by gains in HCL Tech, Trent, Infosys, HCL Tech, HUL, Bharti Airtel, and L&T.
In the broader markets, the BSE MidCap and SmallCap indices outshone the benchmarks with gains of 0.44 per cent each.
Among sectors, the Nifty Pharma index added 1.2 per cent, followed by the Nifty Metal index (0.94 per cent). On the downside, the Nifty Bank index fell the most, down 0.7 per cent.
Global Cues
Meanwhile, markets in the Asia-Pacific region were mixed on Friday, diverging from the lower close on Wall Street overnight, which saw key benchmarks slide as investors digested a persistently increasing US inflation report.
Japan’s Nikkei 225 climbed 0.7 per cent, while the broad-based Topix edged up 0.40 per cent.
South Korea’s Kospi advanced 0.49 per cent and the small cap Kosdaq added 0.36 per cent.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index was ahead by 2.98 per cent, while mainland China’s Shanghai Composite was down 1.16 per cent and the CSI 300 was down 2.22 per cent.
Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 was down 0.15 per cent.
